Power Estimation of a Circuit Design

1. A system of estimating power consumption of a circuit based on a circuit design, comprising: a storage arrangement; and a processor coupled to the storage arrangement, wherein the storage arrangement is configured with instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform operations including: inputting a description of the circuit design, wherein the description of the circuit design comprises a netlist; inputting, for one module of the circuit design, a measured level of power consumption and a description of the one module, wherein the description of the one module comprises a netlist; inputting process-corner, voltage, and temperature values; determining from the netlist of the circuit design and the netlist of the one module, a first set of circuit resources used by the circuit design and not used by the one module; wherein the determining of the first set of circuit resources includes: marking elements of the circuit design netlist that correspond to elements of the one module netlist; and determining the first set of circuit resources from the elements of the circuit design netlist that are not marked as corresponding to the elements of the one module netlist; determining an estimated level of power consumption as a function of the measured level of power consumption, the first set of circuit resources, and the values of the process-corner, voltage, and temperature; and outputting data indicative of the estimated level of power consumption.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining of the estimated level of power consumption includes: estimating a first level of power consumption of the first set of circuit resources; estimating a level of static power consumption based on the values of the process-corner, voltage, and temperature; and summing the first level of power consumption, the measured level of power consumption, and the level of static power.

3. The system of claim 2 , the operations further including: adjusting the value of the temperature in response to the level of static power consumption; and repeating the estimating of the level of static power consumption based on the adjusted value of the temperature and repeating the summing.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the description of the circuit design includes values of parameters that specify an operating speed and counts of resources.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the counts of resources include counts of logic resources and interconnect resources.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the description of the one module includes values of parameters that specify counts of resources.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the determining of the estimated level of power consumption includes: estimating a first level of power consumption of the first set of circuit resources; estimating a level of static power based on the values of the process-corner, voltage, and temperature; and summing the first level of power consumption, the measured level of power consumption, and the level of static power.

8. The system of claim 7 , the operations further including: adjusting the value of the temperature in response to the level of static power; and repeating the estimating of the level of static power based on the adjusted value of the temperature and repeating the summing.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein the determining of the first set of circuit resources includes: determining from the description of the circuit design, a second set of circuit resources used by the circuit design; determining from the description of the one module, a third set of circuit resources used by the one module; and determining the first set of circuit resources as the second set of circuit resources less the third set of circuit resources.

10. The system of claim 4 , wherein the description of the one module includes a hierarchical module name.

11. The system of claim 10 , the operations further including: adjusting the value of the temperature in response to the level of static power; and repeating the estimating of the level of static power based on the adjusted value of the temperature and repeating the summing.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining of the estimated level of power consumption includes: estimating a first level of power consumption of the first set of circuit resources; estimating a level of static power based on the values of the process-corner voltage, and temperature; and summing the first level of power consumption, the measured level of power consumption, and the level of static power.

13. A method of estimating power consumption of a circuit based on a circuit design, comprising: performing, on a programmed processor, operations including: inputting a description of the circuit design, wherein the description of the circuit design comprises a netlist; inputting for one module of the circuit design, a measured level of power consumption and a description of the one module, wherein the description of the one module comprises a netlist; inputting process-corner, voltage, and temperature values; determining from the netlist of the circuit design and the netlist of the one module, a first set of circuit resources used by the circuit design and not used by the one module; wherein the determining of the first set of circuit resources includes: marking elements of the circuit design netlist that correspond to elements of the one module netlist; and determining the first set of circuit resources from the elements of the circuit design netlist that are not marked as corresponding to the elements of the one module netlist; determining an estimated level of power consumption as a function of the measured level of power consumption, the first set of circuit resources, and the values of the process-corner, voltage, and temperature; and storing data indicative of the estimated level of power consumption.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the determining of the estimated level of power consumption includes: estimating a first level of power consumption of the first set of circuit resources; estimating a level of static power consumption based on the values of the process-corner, voltage, and temperature; and summing the first level of power consumption, the measured level of power consumption, and the level of static power.